


Alone in the Crowd

by BubbaKnowlton



Series: Evil Space Dads [1]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: AU where Hux and Kylo are evil space dads with an evil space kid, Abandonment Issues, Abuse/Torture, Hux struggles to be a single parent, Kylo and Rey are cousins, M/M, Needles, and Kylo just leaves them, another story where Kylo defects to the Resistance but with a Twist, emotional and mind manipulation, emperor!hux later on, how the kid came to be in explained in ch 4 it's not a mpreg there's an explanation, post-TFA, snoke is a bad person to small children
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-13
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-05-20 01:49:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 15,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5987980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BubbaKnowlton/pseuds/BubbaKnowlton
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After taking a glimpse into Snoke's true intentions, Kylo Ren defects to the Resistance, leaving behind something important. A year passes and the guilt is gnawing at him, and Rey and Leia are determined to find out what his last tie to the First Order is.<br/>-<br/>Hux has been betrayed by Ren, who he thought he could trust five years after the fall of Starkiller Base. Everything was going <i>fine</i> until Ren left with no warning, leaving him with an empire to manage and a son to raise all by himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Memories

**Author's Note:**

> Listen I love Kylo redemption stories but I also love the idea of Hux and Kylo being evil space dads so here's a mixture of both of those things.  
> Also Edo isn't the kid's full name it's just a nickname that pretty much replaced the kid's real name.

**Chapter 1**

Sometimes when Rey or Finn brought up the First Order within earshot of Kylo, he'd remember things he'd left behind and would be plagued with guilt until he could distract himself enough. Rey would always sense it before he could block out the feelings, and she'd get suspicious of him. It was understandable, he couldn't blame his cousin for not trusting him. She suspected he still hadn't truly drawn away from the First Order, that it was still tempting him somehow. Kylo would never go back, but there was that sweet temptation that he fully regretted leaving behind. If only he could have taken them with him.

Defecting from the First Order had felt surreal the first few weeks. He'd escaped as soon as he had managed to take a glimpse inside of Snoke's mind and seen what the creature was really after. How he and everyone else around him would have been destroyed as soon as Snoke's goals were reached and they had no purpose. Leaving was both for his own personal benefit and for everyone else in the Order's benefit. As long as Snoke never found him he had a chance for a new life, a real life. With him gone, Snoke was weakened, his goals so more unreachable, adding to the time that all of the First Order personal had left. Snoke would need to find a new apprentice, one as strong as Kylo, and have to start all over again. He'd never be able to find one easily, and it would be years upon years before the Supreme Leader would make it to the point in the plan again. He wouldn't be able to snag someone from the Knights of Ren either. The Knights of Ren had left the First Order on Kylo's command. They served him, not the Supreme Leader.

Of course, that was the last command they'd ever heard from him. He'd cut off contact once he reached the Resistance, and had promised his mother he wouldn't associate with them ever again. He wasn't exactly sure if he'd be able to keep that promise. If they somehow found him and showed up at the base he would technically have to interact with them. There was a small hope in him that maybe they would still want to follow him even if they knew he was accepting the light side, that they would want to become grey force users too. Since that was unlikely to ever happen, Kylo didn't dwell on it much.

Kylo didn't dare dwell on the two other people that had nearly forced him to stay.

Now that he had just barely thought about them, his heart sunk. Kylo opened his eyes, unable to meditate any longer. He stood up, needing to find something to distract himself. Maybe he could go see if he could help work in the hanger, borrow Poe's music to listen to. Something that would keep him from thinking.

Rey grabbed his wrist before he could go. Kylo knew immediately that she was finally going to ask what his moments of guilt and regret were for. He didn't want to talk about it, he was worried he wouldn't be able to stop himself from breaking down. 

"Kylo, I-"

"I'm going to go see if Poe needs help in the hanger, I don't feel like meditating anymore."

"Luke said we needed to practice meditating."

He snapped back, "Well I practiced. Let me go." He instantly felt bad he had let his temper resurface. "Sorry... I don't think I can meditate anymore right now. Maybe tomorrow."

She eyed him suspiciously. "You were thinking about the First Order again. You always feel guilty when you do, tell me why. Do you have doubts about whether or not you should haven't have left?"

 _Kriff_ , he wasn't ready to talk about this. It'd been a year and he was no where near ready at all. Kylo couldn't even bring himself to talk to his own mother about it, even though she was the only one who would really know how to comfort him. "Leaving was the right thing to do, I don't ever want to go back."

"We both know that's not true."

Bitter anger rose up, but he swallowed it back down. "What do you know? I would've been killed if I had stayed, if I ever went back. I don't want to die, Rey."

"You regret leaving. Luke senses it too, you know. So does Leia. They want to help you get rid of those regrets, they just don't know how to bring it up."

"Fine, there's one thing I regret. But I'll never be able to get rid of it, it's going to haunt me forever. It can't be helped, either." It couldn't, because the only way to ease that regret was impossible. Kylo made sure to put up a block in case she tried to pry. She didn't need to see what he was trying desperately to bury. She wouldn't understand. "...I deserve to suffer for it, so don't bother."

Rey let him go, and he left the room, no longer feeling the motivation to go to the hanger. Kylo instead headed for home. It'd been a while since he'd locked himself up in his room to sulk, but he felt like he really needed a day to just revel in misery and let emotions out. He had found that just locking himself up and having a good cry brought out the same soothing feeling that the end of one of his anger-induced fits (his _tantrums_ , everyone said) did.

And who knew, maybe cutting something up might make him feel better too. He'd try the isolation first, it made people less angry and scared. Sulking just drew out pity, which was much better than being less trusted. He'd worked so hard the past year to try and make up even a tiny bit for what he had done. It would be awful to destroy a single room and lose all that.

-

Hux sighed as he collapsed into his chair. Everything was just going downhill, had been going so very downhill ever since Ren had left and the Supreme Leader stopped giving clear instructions. The ginger had been left with the task of trying to make sense of the very few messages the Supreme Leader sent, and basically attempting to control the First Order himself from the _Finalizer_. He'd hardly gotten any good sleep in weeks, and now he was settling in for a long night of paperwork.

Within minutes of starting on a report, there was a tug on his pant leg, and he looked down to see sad blue eyes staring up at him. With a huff, he tugged the child up onto his lap, and set back to work. The little boy always wanted to be as close to him as possible whenever he was in the room. 

"Hello, Edo..."

The child gave no response, curling up in his lap. Hux held back another sigh and resumed typing. He'd given up trying to get the child to speak to him, to speak at all. The boy had gone mute ever since his mother had left. A bitter feeling welled up at the thought of how Ren had completely abandoned them to god knows where. _All that talk about he wanted to be with Edo like his own father had never been with him for nothing..._ Hux thought. Ren had up and left just like how he said his own father would, how he said he wouldn't but did anyways.

Edo had settled into some sort of depression that Hux couldn't get him out of. Research had proved the boy was going through abandoned child syndrome, he showed the majority of key signs. Hux had originally tried telling the child that Ren was sure to come back, but as days turned into weeks and then into months, he stopped bringing up Ren altogether. Now it'd been a year and Edo only seemed to be getting worse. He'd gone mute, didn't do anything, never interacted with anyone, had fitful amounts of nightmare-ridden sleep, was overly clingy towards his remaining parent, and never wanted to eat anything. 

If Hux ever saw Ren again he was going to give him a piece of his mind. For leaving the First Order, for leaving him, for leaving their son... He had a whole lecture planned for it, yet somehow he knew he'd probably never get to say a word of it. He was certain he'd never see the knight again. Hux wasn't even sure if that fact bothered him at all. Was he really okay with never seeing that man again?

He noticed Edo giving him a quizzical look and realized he was staring at his screen, hands hovering over the keys. Hux shook his head to snap back to reality and continued to type. Edo rested his head against his chest, silent as ever.


	2. Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hux struggles to take care of a child that is only steadily getting worse  
> -  
> Edo is Edo and Edo is alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tried out something for the second segment about Edo. That's what parts in Edo's POV will be like.  
> Thanks for all the support on the first chapter !! I'm really inspired and I'm working hard on the next few chapters!  
> This came out kind of short but??? It's just because there's no Kylo segment.

**Chapter 2**

Edo was crying, the only time he ever made a sound, after some nightmare. It was the middle of the night, and he'd been sobbing for nearly an hour. Hux didn't know what to do, he couldn't think of anything to try and calm the boy down. It made him wish he actually knew how to be a parent, that his own parents had taken care of him so he'd have memories of what they would have done in times like this. The only thing he could recall about childhood nightmares was that the droids who took care of him would tell him to be quiet or he'd get in trouble. Since he didn't want to get in trouble he'd shut up out of fear and bury his face in his pillow so he wouldn't make a sound. Then the droid would wheel away and he'd be left trembling in his bed.

But Edo couldn't be calmed down that way. So all he could do was hold onto the boy as he cried, stroking a hand through his dark red hair, and hope that he'd settle down soon. Or that he'd fall back asleep. It was another twenty minutes before Edo finally was calmed down to shaky breathing and sniffling, and then ten more before he fell back asleep.

Hux sighed, putting Edo down and tucking him back in. This was a near nightly reoccurrence that had been going on for about a week, and he was exhausted. If only he could figure out how to stop the nightmares. He'd considered giving the boy sleeping pills to get him through a whole night, but he feared that it would just result in longer nightmares that Edo wouldn't be able to wake up from. That would just make him feel worse.

So there really was nothing that Hux could do.

He settled down and closed his eyes, hoping he'd be able to get some rest before some urgent message showed up again or Edo had another nightmare. He briefly considered taking energy pills from now on so he could work harder and longer without the exhaustion that tugged at his mind. Hux decided he'd see if he could find some pills the next time he woke up.

Hux slept peacefully with the thought of artificial tranquility on his mind.

-

Edo's daily life consisted mainly of being alone. Edo lived in his father's quarters on the _Finalizer_ and was told never to leave the room unless he had to, that it was safer for him to remain inside. His father was hardly ever in the room, too busy with work, except for a few hours at night, which the man spent working at his desk or sleeping. He had no time to spare for Edo.

So Edo was alone, with only his father's cat Millicent for company. Unfortunately, the cat did not really want to spend all of her time curled up next to a lonely child, so Edo never got to play with her. Edo made sure to refill her food bowl every morning, to make sure she had plenty of water throughout the day, but other than that Edo did not do anything. Edo did not seek out Millicent to play with or pet her, Edo left her alone like everyone left Edo alone.

Meals were sent to him three times a day. Well, what counted as a day on the ship. Edo often didn't eat them, Edo'd pick at it for a while, and maybe take a few bites, but would dump the rest down the trash chute. Edo knew that this upset his father, the look on his face when the man had initially discovered the habit was one that came up in nightmares, the complete _disappointment_ , but his father didn't do anything to change it. Since no one was ever sent in to assure that Edo ate his full meals, Edo figured that it didn't matter if Edo ate at all. Edo was never hungry anyways, even if the growling of his stomach said otherwise.

Edo used to pass his time by drawing whenever his parents were busy, but now Edo found no motivation to pick up his markers and draw. If Edo drew anything with his mother on it, his father would take it away and hide it somewhere. Drawings of everyone else, anyone else, were kept and hung up. Edo hadn't drawn his mother in a long time. Edo hadn't drawn anything in a long time. Edo didn't feel like drawing.

Edo didn't feel like doing anything.

So Edo didn't.


	3. Needles I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo senses something and finally needs to reveal the truth  
> -  
> Hux realizes he's worse at parenting than he thought he was when Edo nearly dies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning for a lot of needles in Hux/Edo's part !!  
> Also I know nothing about how to treat a starving kid so I'm guessing in Star Wars they'd just inject the vitamins in or whatever lol

**Chapter 3**

Rey had noticed that after Kylo came out from his sulking episode, he felt worse than when he had gone in. It was a different feeling, not guilt, but despair. His eyes had been red from crying and he looked a bit fragile. She knew it was a bit cruel but she jumped at the chance to figure out what was wrong. If he started crying again she was sure that it would just make it easier to squeeze it out of him.

"Hey cousin!" She approached him as he wandered to some unknown destination, possibly to his mother. "Feel any better?"

"A little." A blatant lie. Rey immediately saw through it and Kylo could tell she did.

"Oh, that's good! Do you want to talk about it?"

Kylo's gaze dropped to the floor. He seemed to be hugging himself, although his fingers were digging painfully into his sides. "I... I was going to speak to mom, actually... I think it'd be the best to tell her... about some things..."

"Can I come along?" This was better than prying things out of him.

"I... I don't know. I guess... If you really want to hear." Rey nodded. She most definitely wanted to hear. What was the last tie to the First Order that her cousin had? And more importantly: once she found out what it was, how could she get rid of it? She would work hard with Leia in order to bring Kylo away from the First Order, away from the dark side.

She followed Kylo as he walked, slowing her pace considerably seeing how he was just shuffling along. It was clear as day to see that he didn't want to admit everything just yet. Rey could sense that he felt as if he had to, that he owed it to his mother to tell her what was wrong. He didn't feel like he owed Rey an explanation, he was uncomfortable with the thought of spilling everything with her listening. She held back a laugh when she heard him think ' _She's just going to run and tell Finn and Poe when I'm done talking..._ ' Maybe the idea _had_ crossed her mind. She had been keeping the two in the loop of anything having to do with Kylo.

It just seemed right seeing as how he'd deeply affected their lives in the past. Even after six years, Poe still had cracks in his mind from the torture he had received, and Finn couldn't truly let go of his old life as a storm trooper. He was very fearful of the First Order still, and had been strongly against allowing Kylo to come back the year before. Rey had initially stood with Finn, but now she just wanted her cousin to get a new life, a second chance. Snoke had destroyed his first chance at life, so he was devoting his new chance to erase Snoke's influence.

-

Edo felt like throwing up. Mitaka had found him curled up on the floor while he was retrieving a datapad for the General. The Lieutenant had quickly brought him to the medbay when the boy didn't respond to him and seemed half-dead when he shook his shoulder. Mitaka stayed by him while the medical droids buzzed around him, giving him different injections and putting in IVs. Now Edo was struggling to recover from his latest nightmare that had left him physically ill. 

Perhaps the nightmare had merely been the final step in a series of mishaps. The droids buzzed and crackled, and Edo was too tired to make out or even understand what they were saying. Mitaka was listening intently, so he could relay everything to the General. 

Exhausted, malnourished, a bunch of big words that Edo didn't know the meaning of, but made Mitaka look more and more concerned with each passing word. Mitaka turned on his comm as the medical droids placed an oxygen mask on Edo, and the boy had a feeling what he was breathing in wasn't air, and that the new needle they were bringing over was not some sort of medicine. Edo suddenly felt very scared, realizing the droids were doing things to him that he didn't understand, that he was feeling foggy when he shouldn't be, and squirmed, only for a droid to restrain him. Mitaka's voice became nothing more than a blurred noise.

Edo couldn't think of anything to do but struggle, crying out behind his mask, wriggling despite the needles under his skin. He felt sleepy but fought to stay awake. He'd just _dream_ again, feel that presence again in his nightmares. That sickly familiar feeling that had been once a soothing comfort but was now a strike of panic, a strike of fear. That familiar _magic_ as his father called it once, although Edo didn't know what magic was.

The pinching pierce of that too strange needle in his skin made the child scream, out of fear more than pain. More droids clamped down, and they began to swirl before his eyes, a dance a child wouldn't understand. Mitaka was standing over him once again, Edo tried to focus on that. The droid's chatter melted into an odd melody, a song he'd never heard before, intertwining with his screams.

-

Hux had been on the bridge, his usual task, feeling more energized than usual with the new pills he'd taken that morning, when he had realized he had forgotten to grab a datapad he needed. Since he was already dealing with something on the bridge, he had sent Mitaka to grab it for him, which should have only taken around ten minutes. It had been a lot longer than ten minutes and he was growing impatient. 

His comm suddenly buzzed and he clicked it, seeing it was Mitaka. "Lieutenant, where are you?"

"I'm in the medbay, General!"

"Medbay? Are you injured, Lieutenant?"

"N-no, General! When I went to your quarters, I found Edo on the floor. He looked dead and didn't respond to me at all-" Hux felt his blood run cold at that. "-but he was breathing so I took him to the medbay, sir! The medical droids said that Edo is malnourished and exhausted, so they're hooking him up to IVs and giving him injections. Um-" A droid said something in the background that Hux couldn't make out. "Isn't that too much for a child? A smaller dose would work, right? Th-that's too much for a child! He's not like-" A scream cut off Mitaka's distressed rambling.

Hux quickly shut off his comm as the bridge officers turned to stare at him. He shot them all a glare, "Get back to work! I'll be in the medbay, Major, take over for me."

"Yes, General!"

Everything truly was going downhill. But with the bridge taken care of, Hux went to the medbay, walking quickly. He squashed down the mild panic that was bubbling up. The _Finalizer_ had top quality medical droids, Edo would be fine, it was probably just Mitaka overreacting. Hux wasn't very sure how the man had managed to get all the way up to Lieutenant General rank. Arriving at the medbay and being pointed to a room, he found that Mitaka had most certainly not been overreacting. 

Edo appeared to be having a fit, screaming and trying to thrash around. It was concerning, to say the least. Mitaka was doing his best to help the droids hold down the child, pressing firmly on the boy's shoulders. He was trying to comfort the boy, and as Hux watched it did appear to be working slightly. Hux turned to the nearest droid, "Report!"

"The child is malnourished and requires extensive rest and nutrients. We are stabilizing it now to continue treatment, and it will need to remain here until it has recovered enough strength." The droid answered.

"I have been sending him meals, why is he malnourished?"

"Either the meals do not contain enough nutrients or it has not been consuming them. This looks like a case of self-starvation," came the droid's reply. Hux frowned. So it was his own fault for not following through with making sure that Edo actually ate the food he was receiving. Simply scolding the boy had not been enough if the behavior had continued to this extent.

"Estimate of time needed for rest?"

"Unknown at the moment, a further examination will be required."

"I see, that will be all." Hux gave a curt nod to the droid and moved to be closer to Edo. He was slightly far, staying out of the way of bustling droids, but close enough for Edo to look up at him for just a few moments before slipping into unconsciousness. The droids calmed, and whirred around to grab more syringes and medicines, continuing their treatment.

Mitaka backed away from Edo when the child went limp, breathing out a sigh of relief. He looked up at Hux, "General!"

"You may return to the bridge, Lieutenant, and take over for the Major. I will be staying down here until I get a full report, possibly longer."

"Yes, sir! Here's your datapad, sir." Mitaka pulled the device from his pocket, handing it over to Hux before saluting and then leaving. Hux watched him leave before turning his attention back to his son. The boy looked at ease, the first peaceful expression of unconsciousness that Hux had seen from him in a long time.


	4. Admission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hux is really trying, and Edo has a nightmare.  
> -  
> Kylo admits the truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a bunch of chapters already done so here's a special double update !

**Chapter 4**

Hux stayed by Edo for as long as he could. That is, until the medical droids told him to leave so they could continue examinations and inject more nutrients, refilling IV bags. Hux had never seen so many needles near a child in such a short period of time. It'd only been around eight hours since he originally entered, and he'd been working off of the datapad the entire time, occasionally stopping to listen to one of the medical droids give him an update. They'd given him a final estimate of Edo needing to stay in the medbay for two weeks, and then he would need two weeks bedrest.

He left the medbay and returned to his quarters to clean up. Millicent rubbed against his legs as he exited the bathroom from a shower, purring loudly. He looked over at her food and water bowls. They were surprisingly full, Edo must have been taking care of Millicent while he was too busy to. At least the boy had been doing _something_ , even if it was just a menial task.

Hux sat at his desk and pulled out a different datapad. Millicent hopped up onto the desk and rubbed against his arms. He gave in to the cat's will and petted her for a while. Very relaxing. He was glad that he had brought the cat onboard. She was a good comfort throughout the years, and well-behaved.

A knock on his door distracted him from petting Millicent. He unlocked it and looked over to see Captain Phasma enter the room. "What is it, Captain?" 

"Heard there was a fuss over lil' B.3. Is he alright?" Hux hated the nickname she'd given Edo. He turned back to the datapad before speaking.

"Yes, Edo is fine. He's currently in the medbay and is expected to make a full recovery. Is that all?"

"Are _you_ alright, General?" Hux froze. He let his fingers hover over the device before clenching his fist.

"I am perfectly healthy, Phasma. I've felt the best I have in weeks, to be honest. Modern medicine does wonders."

She crossed her arms. "Hux. You two aren't okay. I'm worried about you two. I have been since the start, but you both are suddenly taking a turn for the worst."

"Well it happens when you're suddenly alerted that your child has been starving himself out of misery and was found by the Lieutenant half-dead on the floor, and the Supreme Leader has abandoned the Order for you to try and run discreetly." His voice came out more bitter than he intended.

Phasma shrugged, unaffected by the sting of his words, "Maybe you should carry him around with you. Keeping B.3. locked up in your room has got to be eroding his mental health."

"It's _already_ eroded, it has been since _he_ left." Hux spat. "Also, the medics said he'll be in bed for a month, so I won't be able to tot him around."

"Just a suggestion, sir." Phasma dismissed herself with that.

-

Kylo took a deep breath before pushing open the door to his mother's office. She was alone at the moment, so it was the right time to speak with her about the truth. Rey was right on his heels. Kylo could feel the curiosity radiating off of her. She was practically dying to know what secret he had, what he'd been hiding for a year, had been intent on hiding forever until he'd sensed something.

Reaching out to the person he regretted leaving behind had been a mistake.

Kylo opened up his mind to his mother, taking down all the barriers so she'd be able to sense all of his thoughts while he spoke. She looked up at him from her desk. She was looking over reports. There'd been plenty of attacks on First Order ships, where the Resistance came back successful. 

"Mom, I need to tell you and Rey something." He could not back down now. Surely it would ease him some to admit what was bothering him, right?

"What is it, dear?"

"You and Rey have clearly sensed that there is something bothering me, a temptation for the First Order. Rey, I know you suspect that I want to go back." His cousin nodded solemnly. "It's true, I... I do want to return, but only to get something, someone. There's two people I left behind, one of which I really wish I hadn't. The guilt is eating me alive, I don't know what to do. It's too late to go back, I lost my chance when I first left the Order."

"Kylo-"

"I... I thought that by leaving everyone behind I'd be saving them, buying them time, at least another thirty or forty years, possibly more. Snoke has withdrawn with my disappearance, his plans are right back to the start. But the more I dwell on it the more I realize I should have taken that one person with me, if not both of those people." No pulling back now. He clenched his fists to try and calm himself down.

"Who did you leave behind?" Rey prompted, seeing that he was growing nervous.

"Ah..." _Just say it, Ren,_ he thought to himself. "My son. I left him, abandoned him, when I came here." His mother was silent, and Kylo wished that she would give some kind of reaction, some sort of validation. "We call him Edo -he never liked his real name- and he's around five years old now. He was b- he was _made_ one year after Starkiller base. He's technically a clone of me with genes from General Hux, altered with the dark side of the force. He has no light in him, he was made to be a dark warrior, but since he shows no sign of force sensitivity he was given to Hux and I to raise to be another General. He looks a lot like Hux, with red hair and his paleness- um..." Now Rey was staring at him in silence too.

"A-anyways! That's what's eating at me, that I abandoned Edo." Kriff, he felt nervous. Why weren't they responding? They could sense that he was telling the truth, so why were they staring at him like that? If this was what their reaction was going to be, why did he bother telling them at all?

-

Edo dreamt that Edo stood in a long hallway. There were no doors in the hallway, and the panelling looked like it did in the _Finalizer_. As Edo walked down the hallway, Edo could see at the end there was a doorway. Walking towards it, Edo found that no matter how long Edo walked, Edo couldn't reach the doorway.

Edo stopped and turned around, finding that there was someone behind Edo. Edo looked up to see a familiar masked face staring down at Edo. Recognizing his missing parent, Edo stepped towards him, only for the man to take a step back. 

_Mom_ , Edo tried to say, but his mouth would not open, Edo was left staring up at the helmet with wide eyes. The man suddenly spun around and began to walk off. Edo followed, trying to catch up, to grab the end of the cape billowing out in front of Edo. His hands couldn't grasp the cloth, and Edo couldn't speed up enough. 

Low chatter built up seemingly behind Edo, but Edo didn't turn to see what made the sound. Edo feared that if Edo turned, his mother would vanish. Had he come back? Where was he going? Edo tried to speak again, _wait for me_ , but the words refused to come out. Edo tried to talk again, _don't leave me again_ , tried to yell, but no words left Edo's throat.

If only Edo could scream.

-

As soon as he was allowed, Hux went down to the medbay to check on Edo. It was a bit painful to see the little boy attached to so many needles, with a too-big mask covering his mouth. A steady flow of sleeping gas emitted from the mask, keeping the boy in an unconscious state. His sleep looked disturbed, the boy was twitching and frowning.

Hux ran a hand through the boy's hair, hoping the touch would offer some comfort. He had some time to himself now, unless an emergency came up. Mitaka and the Major General had everything under control for the time being. Hux decided to use this time to figure out what to do to take care of Edo better. For starters, he'd definitely have the stormtroopers that gave Edo his meals stay in the room to make sure he actually ate. That would solve one problem. Edo shifted in his sleep, and Hux heard him mumble 'mom'. He drew his hand back, recoiling, and frowned. The child was dreaming of Ren. Hux stepped back and then turned, exiting the room swiftly.

That was one problem he could not solve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up next: Leia and Rey's reaction, and Hux seems to be doing better with the whole parenting thing but not completely


	5. Abandon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leia's response is a disappointment and Rey gets pretty upset  
> -  
> Hux is actually doing better, but something is up with Edo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh boy all of y'all who were like 'make leia knock some sense into her son' are gonna be real disappointed.  
> I'm gonna have to update the tags soon

**Chapter 5**

Rey and Leia just honestly had no clue how to react to Kylo's confession of having a son. They'd more so expected him to say something like Snoke was still talking to him or that he was still in contact with the First Order. They didn't know what to say to him. Rey felt the urge to laugh out of nervousness, but held it back. After an uncomfortable minute of silence, Leia found some words.

"Why didn't you just take him with you? Children are innocent, we would have accepted him."

"I thought he would have suffered here. Edo has this dark aura that no one here would have been able to ignore. The First Order workers don't notice it because they're used to me, so I thought he would be better off if I left him with Hux. He's also spent his entire life on ships, so I didn't know if he'd be able to adjust living planet-side." 

"That seems reasonable. Is the General a good father? I knew the Commandant, so I'm not sure if his son would make a good father."

"Hux is..." Kylo tried to think of a good wording. "Hux tries his best? Neither of us knew how to raise a child, him less so than me, but he does everything he can. He's certainly better than his own father, Hux Sr. never did anything remotely parental with him."

Rey cut in, "You left your son with an evil space dictator who has no idea how to raise a child?"

Wow that sounded really bad when she put it that way. "Don't say it like that..."

"There's no other way to say it!! How could you just leave your kid?!" Rey suddenly seemed angry and Kylo didn't understand why. "Being abandoned is- it's-" She struggled to find a good word and Kylo finally got it. Rey knew the feeling of being abandoned more than anyone. Hell, even Kylo knew the feeling from when his parents dropped him off at Luke's when he was ten and just left, whenever Han would take off. "-it's awful!" She finished, her hands shaking.

Kylo didn't have an answer for her. Leia interrupted before Rey could continue. "Kylo, you can continue."

He nodded. "Well, I thought he'd be happier in the First Order, but... I sensed him earlier, I reached out for him, and he was so unhappy, he was suffering. I could feel it, he was actually dying. I don't know why, he blocked me out as soon as he sensed me in his head, but he was."

"Kylo..."

"He felt so _alone_... I shouldn't have left him behind." Leia looked down. She recalled feeling roughly the same when she had first dropped Kylo off with Luke, reaching out to him just a few hours later. "It's too late now- I just wanted you to know."

"Can't we do something, Leia?" Rey tried, "We could save him somehow, right? We- we could sneak on board and grab him-"

"No, Rey. We can't. It's too dangerous, and like Kylo said, it's too late now, it's been a year. I don't believe General Hux would take too kindly to us trying to steal his son, Edo is probably under high security."

"Yeah." Kylo added, "Hux and I kept Edo locked in Hux's quarters, and Hux had a bunch of security installed to make sure no one got in. He's probably changed all of the access and override codes, so it would be impossible to get in without causing an alarm to set off." Hux also had a tracker on Edo like he had with Kylo, but Kylo decided not to mention that. Kylo had gotten rid of his belt as soon as he had defected, destroying it so the tracker wouldn't work.

Leia nodded, "Exactly. Unless an opportunity arises, we will not make any rescue missions. So Rey, I'll be telling Poe he's forbidden from any rescue missions you might suggest he go on, and I'll be telling Finn too."

"Aunt Leia!"

-

Hux decided not to go see Edo in the medbay for the remaining two weeks. If he was really needed, then the medical droids would send him an alert over his comm. He simply did want to stand there and watch Edo squirm as he dreamed of _him_. He didn't have to watch that, Edo did not need comfort, just more medicine. It was stressful to be there, and he had better things to do than be stressed, like running the First Order while Snoke was away. 

He got a message on his comm exactly fifteen days from when Edo was first brought to medbay saying that he could come take the boy back to his quarters. It happened during lunch, so he excused himself and walked off. It had admittedly worried him that he did not get the message yesterday like expected, but it was surely nothing. An extra day was for good measure. It was much better to keep someone in medical for an extra amount of time rather than send them out earlier and risk problems. After all, the fourteen days had just been an estimate, not a specified time.

When he entered the room, Edo was sitting up in the bed, being dressed by the medical droids. The mask was gone and one last IV needle was removed from his arm before his shirt was tugged on. The boy looked much healthier than before, and was no longer deathly pale. 

A droid handed him a report and list of instructions before allowing him to take Edo. Hux picked up the boy, looking over the hologram he'd been handed. Edo rested his head against Hux's chest, closing his eyes. It was comforting to be with his father again, he'd missed him the past two weeks, with only the company of droids and a strange voice in the back of his head.

-

As soon as Hux made it to his quarters, he put Edo in bed and finished reading the report. He memorized the list of instructions before turning to Edo, who was staring up at him with wide blue eyes. He was obviously waiting to be scolded.

"From now on I am going to send a trooper up with your meals, and they will make sure you eat it. I will have no more of your starvation, you will eat all the meals that are given to you even if you do not want them, understand?" Edo nodded. "When you are cleared by the medics, I will be taking you with me wherever I go to look after you. You are to make no fuss and you will not interrupt my work. If I am busy with the Supreme Leader or something off-ship, you will stay with Phasma or Mitaka. I will debrief them on how to look after you when the time arises. For now you are to remain in bed, and will not get up unless I instruct you to. I'll take care of Millicent for you. Do you understand?"

Another nod.

"Good. I will give you things to entertain yourself with if you can't sleep, I need to report to the bridge." He grabbed some books, a datapad with lots of music and holodramas, and Edo's notebook and markers. He flipped through the papers to see if there was anything new. He found an old drawing of _him_ and pulled it out, folding it and putting it into his pocket. He would be getting rid of that later. There was a loose drawing of Millicent in the middle of the book, so he took that and put it on his desk. He'd tape that up when he got the chance.

Millicent hopped up onto the bed and rubbed against Edo. She was glad to see he was back and alright. Hux patted her head and kissed the top of Edo's head before leaving. Edo watched until he was gone and the door was closed. The boy spent a few minutes petting Millicent until she was satisfied and hopped down to go get water. Edo laid back and stared up at the ceiling. He was tired, but his dreams had been getting much more surreal and he was a bit scared to fall asleep. He pulled up the datapad and put on the earbuds attached to it, turning on music.

He focused on the sound to ignore any thoughts. Edo didn't want to think of anything, he'd feel guilty another day. Think about his faults later. Try and figure out why his mother was gone again when he understood more, why it had to be his fault the man was gone. The voice in the back of his head told him that plenty enough when he was alone in the medbay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> up next: Everything goes to absolute HELL with Hux and Edo


	6. Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened the night Kylo left  
> -  
> Snoke finally speaks with Hux about a new plan, reveals the "truth" to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh boy time to use the new tag of emotional and mind manipulation gotta love Snoke amiright??

**Chapter 6**

Edo knew it was his fault that his mother had left them, it just had to be. Edo had yet to figure out how, why it was, but it just was. There was no other reason Edo could think of that would force his mother to be so cold and then just leave other than Edo. Perhaps he didn't like Edo anymore, maybe Edo was too disappointing. Edo was weak, Edo knew that. Edo couldn't do magic like his mother could, so maybe his mother had despised Edo for being too normal, for being just Edo, a boy with no magic. What other explanation could there be? It couldn't have been his father's fault. His father and mother argued a lot, sure, but they had cared about each other, right up until the last moment. Right up until his mother had left while Edo and his father were sound asleep.

His mother had been cold to Edo those last few days. Hadn't spent time with Edo, didn't talk to Edo, didn't say goodnight to Edo, and didn't respond to Edo. His mother had acted normally with his father, maybe a bit more loving than usual. But not to Edo. His last memory of his mother was him laying in bed, giving his father a goodnight kiss and an 'I love you' but ignoring Edo and flipping over to face opposite of them. Edo usually slept between them, but Edo was instead in his father's arms that night. Edo had felt sad that his mother hadn't kissed his forehead like he usually did nor told him goodnight, but Edo had figured that maybe his mother had been too tired. That he would kiss Edo in the morning.

But when Edo and his father woke up in the morning his mother had been gone, all of his things had been gone, and there was no sign of him anywhere. For the first few weeks, his father had convinced himself that it was just a new mission from Leader Snoke, but one day Edo had watched his father come in, angrier than Edo had ever seen him before. Edo had held onto Millicent as his father cursed and screamed, ripping down all of Edo's pictures of his mother, punching the wall over and over before finally slumping to the ground and shaking, screaming into his hands. Edo had only been able to make out from the yells that his mother was gone for good, and wasn't on a mission.

Edo stopped talking after that episode.

Edo stopped drawing his mother after a month of getting pictures ripped out of his hands by his father.

Edo stopped eating when the nightmares began.

Edo stopped doing things seeing how tired his father was and realizing that it was all his fault somehow, seeing the sad look in his father's eyes every time he looked at Edo.

Edo wished Edo could disappear like his mother did.

Edo didn't tell his father when Edo heard a voice in the back of his head.

-

Hux was relieved when Phasma came a few days later and told him there was an incoming transmission from Snoke. He hurriedly went to the room and bowed down as Snoke's image crackled to life. Finally, he'd get instructions. Maybe he'd get answers to the multitude of questions that had been building up in his head.

"Supreme Leader."

"General." Hux lifted his head. "How is your son? I heard that he collapsed."

"He is doing much better, Supreme Leader."

"I have created a new plan, he is an essential part of it. Will you allow me to use him?"

"Of course, Supreme Leader! For the good of the First Order, you may use him for anything." They actually had a goal of some kind now. Hux felt happy. 

"Good... Bring him to me as soon as he is cleared, I will enter his mind and set things into motion, then I will discuss with you the full plan. For now, draw back the First Order, focus on rebuilding and fortifying. Do not attack nor conquer anything until I give further notice."

"Yes, Supreme Leader."

"You seem to be holding back a question, General, what is it?"

Snoke must have been prodding through his thoughts. He already knew the question, but Hux vocalized it anyways. "Do you know where Ren left to? Why he did?"

"Unfortunately he has blocked me off, I cannot determine his location." Hux couldn't hide his disappointment. "However I did manage to search through both yours and your child's thoughts and determined the reason for Kylo Ren's betrayal." Hux stared up at the Supreme Leader, both eagerly awaiting and fearing what he would say.

"Ren could not handle the responsibilities of being a parent, he held no love towards you nor your son... and couldn't bear the struggle of faking it. He was weak, and refused to try, so he fled, not wanting to see either of you again. I always sensed that he hated to be around you and the boy... but I expected that he would grow stronger and accept his duty. However, I made a grave mistake, he could not. I must go, General, you are dismissed. I am sorry."

"Yes, Supreme Leader." Hux barely felt the words leave his mouth and stared into empty space where Snoke's image had once been. For a minute, he felt numb, and then anger replaced the emptiness, white hot, burning. He clenched his teeth.

Everything had been a lie. All those years, all those feelings and moments, just an act, an order. Hux couldn't believe he had let himself be deceived so easily. All those times he thought Ren felt the same way, he must have been projecting false emotions. That was Ren's expertise after all, getting into people's heads and fucking with their feelings. Had everything he felt towards Ren just been false emotions placed into his head? Hux clenched his fists, feeling himself start to shake. Ren had been lying to him for years, was too damn weak to continue his act, and fled, betraying the two people that had been tricked into thinking he cared.

What a fucking fool he'd been.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up next: Hux tells Edo the "truth" and Kylo is having a good time, unaware of what's happening systems away


	7. General Ginger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo feels better and makes fun of Hux with the gang while Hux feels worse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updating during my English class haha.  
> Thanks for making this my most popular fic so far!!! I hope I won't disappoint as I continue. I really enjoy writing this and I have a buffer of chapters.

**Chapter 7**

After admitting to his mother and Rey the truth, Kylo felt like a weight had lifted off of his shoulders. Rey was much less suspicious of him, although she was angry. Yet since she was forbidden from going after Edo, she had taken to talking to Kylo about the boy. All the fun little stories he had to tell, was comfortable telling. Rey did immediately go and tell Finn and Poe about everything, so they stopped by to talk too. Kylo wondered if they felt more at ease around him knowing he had a kid that he cared about, that it made him seem more like a person, less of a monster.

It made Kylo feel a lot better to tell the stories. The trio always had lot of questions, even after two weeks of lots of stories. 

"So what does the kid look like? I never got that description." Poe was tinkering with some device as they sat around a table. Rey had just finished training with Luke for the day so they were hanging out. Finn was playing with BB-8, tossing a small ball that the droid was rolling around like a dog.

"He looks pretty much the same as Hux."

"General Ginger?" After Kylo used the nickname once around them they'd all started calling Hux that. "Poor kid."

"Hey! He's a cute kid! His hair is just darker, more red than orange, and his eyes are pretty dark blue. He also has a ton of freckles all over him, and he's really tiny."

"Of course he's tiny, you're so kriffin' huge." Poe vaguely gestured at Kylo. "He's gonna end up growing to be a really tall freckled redhead. No one will take him seriously."

"Hux is a tall freckled redhead and everyone takes him seriously."

"The General has freckles?" Finn asked in disbelief. BB-8 beeped as Finn's attention was directed elsewhere from their game.

"Yeah. But he's always in space so they never show up. But if he spent more than ten minutes in actual sunlight they'd be all over his face for everyone to see. He has them all over his shoulders and back though."

"Wow didn't need that image." Poe snorted. "No wonder he destroyed a sun, he looks like the kind of guy to burn instantly."

"Spot on. Edo probably is the same but he's never been planet-side before so I don't know."

"Your poor tiny redheaded child. Maybe it's a good thing he and Hux never leave the ships, they'd be spending a fortune on sunscreen." He finished fixing up his device and put it down. "So he's never been on a planet?"

"He's never even left the _Finalizer_. He was created right on board and never left."

"Yikes. Hey Rey, do you think you could manage living on a ship your whole life?"

Her reply was immediate, "No way." They all laughed.

-

Edo was eagerly waiting for his father to come back. The voice in the back of his head -his new _friend_ \- told him that his father was on his way back early. The voice said that it would be time to ask about his mother, that his father finally had answers, knew what had happened. Edo trusted the voice, he had no reason not to. Everything that they'd said had come true so far, and Edo suspected that they were a magic person. His mother had been able to talk to him through thoughts, so this had to be another person. They just felt different than his mother had, they felt icy, prickly. 

When Hux came in Edo could see that the redheaded man was livid. It reminded him of the morning a year ago so he stayed quiet. Hux saw the flash of fear in his son's eyes and forced himself to try and calm down, to take a deep breath and not let his anger make him lose control. He didn't want to scare the boy again. 

"Edo, are you alright?" A nod. "That's- that's good. I'm glad. Were you drawing?" He noticed the notebook was open and a few markers were scattered around the boy. Another nod, and Edo pulled out a piece of paper to hand to him, a completed drawing. It was of himself and Hux, and Millicent was between them. It had 'my family' written at the top. "I'll hang this up."

Hux went to his desk to grab tape, and noticed the drawing of Millicent from a few days ago was still sitting there. He had forgotten to tape that up, so he did it, putting both pictures next to the other ones that Edo had drawn. Hux went back to the bed, sitting on the edge and sighing. Edo watched him with wide eyes, worried that his father would suddenly snap.

Hux spent a minute trying to compose himself, pacing, and finally decided to give up. He'd given orders to the bridge, he wouldn't be needed personally for a while, he could stay in here and try to cope with the new information from Snoke. He moved his coat to the end of the bed and pulled off his boots, setting them neatly by the wall. Hux pulled his legs up onto the bed and leaned against the headboard. Kriff, he was upset. He drew up his legs and pressed his forehead against his knees. 

Lifting his head to check on Edo, he saw that the boy was staring at him expectantly. Hux opened up a bit and pulled Edo over, curling up around him. Edo ignored how tightly he was being held. "Are you okay?"

Hux hadn't heard Edo speak to him in _such_ a long time. He gritted his teeth, holding the boy tighter. Edo squirmed a bit before settling. "Dad?"

Why did Ren have to _leave_? Why couldn't he have stayed, even if everything truly was a lie like the Supreme Leader said? He'd prefer blissful ignorance over _this_. He'd prefer being played like a fool over this feeling of heartbreak. 

Feeling his father start shaking, Edo felt clueless. Had he done something wrong again? He hoped not. He tried doing what the voice had said, "Dad... is mom ever coming back?" Hux stiffened.

Edo feared he'd made his father mad. Hux uncurled, moving Edo to be facing him on his lap.

"Ren is never coming back."

"Why did he leave?"

"He did not want to be around us- he hated us." Edo's eyes widened. "He doesn't care about you, doesn't care about me, about us. He never cared about you and I and he is _never_ coming back. Do you understand?"

Edo didn't want that answer. "But he-"

"He never loved you, Edo! He's a traitor and he's never coming back and that's for the better! Forget about him!" Hux immediately regretted raising his voice, being harsh. Edo stared at him and Hux could only watch as tears welled up and began to fall. He hugged the boy tightly. "You still have me...I... I promise I won't leave like he did. I'm- I'm right here, Edo. It'll be alright."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up next: everything continues to go Very Wrong on the _Finalizer_


	8. Puppeteer I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hux takes Edo to Snoke and even Kylo can sense that Hux is becoming a very Bad Dad

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> time to use the mind manipulation tag!!!! I love a good force possession  
> and to think Hux was doing so well,,,,,,,,,  
> This chapter was inspired by the song Karma by VocaCircus and Eyeris which I think is a good song for Edo?? I listened to it a ton while writing.

**Chapter 8**

Thirteen days after being released from the medbay, right around noon, a medical droid informed Hux that Edo was clear to come out of bedrest. Just minutes after that, Hux picked up Edo and brought him to Snoke, explaining what would be happening as they walked to the transmission room.

"-the Supreme Leader wishes to use you in his plans, for the betterment of the First Order. He will speak to you, and discuss his plans with us. Be on your best behavior." When they reached the room, Hux clicked a button to request a call, and then stood straight, still holding Edo. Within seconds Snoke's image appeared. The old lord looked as twisted as ever.

"Supreme Leader, I've brought my son as you requested. He is fully recovered."

"Good, good. Edo... Do you know who I am?"

"You're the voice!" Edo sounded excited. "You're the person who talks to me in my head!"

"That's right, young one. I am your ' _friend_ '. General, I have been conversing with your son for the past few weeks in preparation to gain full access to his mind, I hope you do not care."

"Of course not, Supreme Leader." It did disturb him a bit, Edo hadn't said anything. He ignored that. If Snoke found it necessary to speak to Edo with the force than he had no right to question it.

"General, I have come up with a new plan, as I mentioned previously. I would like for you to take my place as the official Emperor of the First Order. I have matters to attend to that will leave me unable to guide the Order for long periods of time. Of course, you will still answer to me, but I leave the First Order in your capable hands. A public ceremony will be held in a few weeks, and your coronation will be announced to the entirety of the galaxy."

"It would be my honor, Supreme Leader."

"Good. I have started preparations, I will send them to you to be finalized. I expect only the best from you, General Hux. Now, leave your son with me for just a few minutes. Do not come back in, I will send him out when I have finished." Hux put Edo down, growing a bit nervous. He didn't know what Snoke planned to do with Edo. He swallowed down his fears. Snoke wouldn't harm the boy, he needed him for the plan. He realized that Snoke hadn't mentioned what Edo was part of the plan for, he hadn't been told the entire thing, but left him anyways.

He waited outside the door as he was told, and cringed when he heard Edo scream. The screaming lasted just a few seconds, and then silence. The door slid open five minutes after that and Edo stumbled out of the room, like his limbs didn't want to work properly. He looked like a string puppet trying to walk. Big tears streamed down his face, betrayed by a large grin. Hux reached down to steady him, and his breath hitched seeing Edo's eyes.

They were the wrong color. They were no longer that deep blue that reminded Hux of pictures of oceans, but a pale ice blue.

He'd heard stories of dark siders' eyes turning a different color whenever they reached complete impurity, usually yellow or red, but Edo had no force sensitivity. Snoke had obviously done something, but Hux wasn't sure what.

Edo held out his arms as if struggling to balance and swayed along, intent on heading somewhere. Tears still dripped off of his face, but that big smile remained. Hux followed the child, reaching down to keep him from tripping over his own feet every so often. They ended up back at Hux's quarters, and once the door opened Edo headed straight for the bed. Hux lifted him up and put him on top of it, and Edo fell asleep the second he hit the mattress.

Hux wondered what Snoke had done.

It wasn't his place to question, he had new orders to follow.

-

Kylo awoke with a strangled gasp. He'd trained hard with Rey all morning and had exhausted himself, so he'd fallen asleep on the couch as soon as they got home. But now he was jerked awake by a horrible feeling he couldn't describe. It made panic surge through him, and he fought to breathe.

Something was wrong-

A disturbance-

The force-

Snoke-

_Edo-_

Rey found him choking on the couch, coming out of the kitchen. She rushed over to him. "Kylo! What's wrong?" He dug his fingers into the couch, ripping it. She attempted to sense what was wrong and had to take a step back at the sheer amount of darkness and fear that slammed into her. "Come on, cousin, snap out of it!" Rey could only watch as Kylo twisted in panic until he finally took a long gasp and could breathe again, the feeling fading. 

"Kylo?" She asked as soon as he caught his breathe. "What was that?" 

"Snoke- he...he did something to Edo he- I felt-" He squeezed his eyes shut and reached out with the force, only to pull back when he hit a wall. "I can't reach him." 

"Is he dead?" 

"No- _no_. I would've felt that. Snoke did something to his head. If he's trying to get in him like he did with me I-" 

"Calm down! He's not force sensitive, Snoke can't make him do anything! He's probably just blocked you off from him so you can't sense him anymore, to provoke you." 

That sounded reasonable. "Al-alright... You're right. I just-" 

"Panicking, I got it. Do you want to tell Leia?" 

"Later, she's busy. Maybe...could you talk to Luke for me, when you get the chance?" 

"Sure." 


	9. Aunt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phasma's intervention and Edo's full name

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm extremely in love with Phasma so here's a light hearted chapter dedicated to her  
> don't worry there will be more suffering soon  
> Also turns out I don't actually have a buffer left so updates might slow down but I'm hard at work !!

**Chapter 9**

Edo slept for exactly one hour, not one second more, and rolled over when he woke up. Hux had stayed next to him, and had unknowingly been timing it. Hux heard him shifting and looked down at him. Edo sat up, rubbing his eyes.

They were back to their normal dark blue.

Hux felt relieved.

"Are you alright?" The boy nodded before yawning. "Tired?" A shrug. "Let's wash your face off and go to the bridge." He lifted up his son and carried him to the bathroom, seating him on the edge of the sink and grabbing a cloth. Edo mumbled protests when the wet cloth was rubbed on his face, wiping away the traces left behind by tears. Hux decided to run a brush through the boy's hair, since it was terribly messy. It would do no good for his own son to not look presentable in front of all the bridge officers. The brushing lulled Edo to a dozing state.

Once Edo's hair met Hux's standards, the red strands all in place, Hux felt ready to return to the bridge. 

Pretty much all of the officers stared or took a double take when he walked in with a dozing child on his hip as if everything was perfectly normal. All of them knew about Edo, but most had never seen him. Well, they'd be seeing a lot of him now. 

Captain Phasma came up to them as soon as she saw them. She stopped a little too close for Hux's comfort. "Hey B.3.!" She reached forward and booped the boy's nose. "Finally out and about! Feeling better?" Edo nodded. "So I heard you met our Supreme Leader, B.3., how was that? Was he scary?"

Edo stared at her blankly, confused. 

"The Supreme Leader!" Phasma prompted. "You saw him earlier, right A little over an hour ago, right General?"

"Yes, we did see him. Edo, she's talking about the man we saw earlier. Your friend?" Edo's mouth formed a little 'o' when he realized. He nodded at Phasma. 

"Do you want to tell me about it?" The boy just stared at her again.

Hux sighed. "He's still mute. Try yes or no questions." The child's few words from the week before were obviously just temporary. Well, he wasn't going to try and force the boy to speak if he didn't want to. There would be no good to come out of that. Phasma took Edo from him so she could have her own little conversation with the boy. 

"I'll be stealing your son for a bit, General, I have money to collect and he's the evidence."

"What-"

She was gone before he could protest. Hux huffed. He would have to make an announcement to discourage betting again. Phasma would be richer than anyone else if the betting continued. He wondered what the bet was this time. That Edo didn't actually exist vs. he definitely did? Phasma had the unfair advantage there, she'd watched over him before. All she needed was physical proof, so what better than taking Edo himself to show off to the troops that owed her money?

Hux made a mental note to put a tracker on Edo if Phasma seemed like she was going to be stealing him more often.

-

Once they were out of the General's sight Phasma moved Edo so he would be on her shoulders. He held onto her helmet, not used to being so high up. Troopers and workers she passed all stared at her, making her smirk underneath her chrome helmet. She was about to be real richer real soon. The General had lectured all of them before that betting was bothersome and idiotic, but she suspected he only cared because most of their bets involved him. She was still pretty set off from winning the bet with proof a few years ago that he and Kylo Ren were fucking, and Hux had lectured her for the better part of an hour after getting over the initial humiliation. Phasma hadn't cared because she was too busy counting credits.

Stepping into the mess hall she stomped her foot down to get everyone's attention. The troopers all looked up at her and it was so great to see all of their expressions as they sat without their helmets. Most of them were shock, disbelief, some were confused. 

"Alright! All of you who made that bet with me that General Hux either does or does not have a son better get ready to pull out credits! I've got Brendol Hux the Third on my shoulders and I'm ready to take my earnings!"

"How do we know he's not just some random kid?" Some trooper shouted out. 

Phasma shot a glare their way, which they couldn't actually see underneath her helmet. "Are you doubting me, CV-0444? Shall I call the General and have him confirm this?"

Another sighed, "He'll just make a speech on how betting is stupid and we're wasting our time."

"RN-0634 you're absolutely right but I want my winnings."

"Captain please don't." It was too late. Phasma pulled out her holoprojecter. She hit the button for the General and a small visage of him appeared. 

"Phasma what are you doing to my son?" The troopers started groaning and pulling out their credits. "D- Did you make another bet on me?! Stop doing th-" She shut it off before he could jump into a lecture. Edo watched, swinging his feet a bit as troopers approached Phasma to hand her money. He didn't really know what was going on but Phasma seemed happy so he supposed it was alright.

He didn't know what betting was so he'd have to figure that out someday. Maybe he could grab an extra datapad and search for info on betting. He'd have to figure out how to spell it correctly too.


	10. Recoil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phasma is like the Cool Aunt and Hux is concerned

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's the next chapter ! Phasma is so cool I wish she would be my Cool Aunt.  
> Another light-hearted chapter I guess  
> I'll also be posting soon a work that will be side stories for this, little extras that fit in with this universe but not the actual timeline. I'll probably be calling it Alone in the Crowd: Extras

**Chapter 10**

When Hux got Edo back from Phasma four hours later he was irritated as she ran away before he could jump into a lecture. She shouted back something about going on patrol while taking off. She always went on lots of patrols so it was a good excuse. He sighed and looked down at Edo. The boy seemed content, eating a plain muffin he had been given sometime earlier. He was eating it slowly, taking small bites so crumbs wouldn't fall. 

Hux was done with the bridge for now, he would spend the rest of first shift in his office. When he started walking Edo followed close at his heels. The boy's eyes darted around as they walked, taking in all the details of the ship that he could. Perhaps he was memorizing the route from the bridge, Hux thought. Hux slowed his normal pace a bit so Edo wouldn't struggle to keep up at all. The child wasn't very strong and would have a low endurance rate. That would be fixed if he followed his father around everywhere.

Or if Phasma dragged him off more often. Hux suspected she would try to train Edo to be stronger if she got a chance, he would have to tell her to stay safe. It wouldn't do any good to send Edo straight back to medbay with injuries sustained from Phasma's definition of 'properly' training a child. 

Once he reached his office, Hux looked through a drawer and pulled out a very small tracker. He lifted Edo onto his desk. "I'm going to put this tracker in your armband. So make sure to always wear it." He slid it through the seams of the red band. When Edo was younger he had a tracker in his shoes, but when he outgrew them and got a new pair Hux hadn't replaced the tracker. With everything that was going on it was much safer to have one. They'd come in handy in the past. He checked to make sure it worked and when he was certain it did he put Edo back on the floor.

He handed the boy some paper and a pen and settled down to work. He looked over the plans for the coronation in three weeks. The Supreme Leader had pretty much everything down, orders already sent out and invitations delivered. All he needed to do was make sure everything came in and that everything would be set up correctly. The planet that the coronation would take place on was discerningly close to where the Resistance was known to frequent, but Hux sent the coordinates up to the bridge anyways. They would have to get there early. 

-

Hux found that the routine of bringing Edo along with him everywhere was rather easy to settle into. He wakes up the boy every morning when his alarm goes off and they get prepared. Since Edo is quicker to get ready, his clothing and morning routine less complicated, the boy refills Millicent's bowls and grabs whatever he needs for the day while Hux finishes up. Then Hux takes him with him to the mess hall and they eat, and then they head to the bridge. Edo falls back asleep for the majority of first shift, but wakes up near the end of it. If there's a meeting he's passed over to Mitaka, and he's given back as soon as Hux returns.

The routine is broken when Phasma steals Edo right out from under Mitaka, announcing to the smaller man that she was taking him for training. Mitaka was helpless to stop her and waited to report the incident to the General until he was finished with the meeting discussing the monthly budget.

-

"Alright B.3., you need to hold onto it tightly or else the recoil will make you drop it." Phasma knelt down behind Edo. The boy tightened his grip on the blaster like she said. A group of stormtroopers had gathered to watch their Captain teach the General's son how to shoot a blaster. It was a bit amusing to watch, the blaster was big and clumsy in such a small child's hands. Phasma would snap her head back to look at them whenever one of them laughed, so they kept their amusement to themselves.

Edo turned to look at Phasma with a confused expression. She guessed what he was thinking. "When you shoot it, it jerks back in your hands. That's what recoil is." He nodded in understanding. She wrapped her hands around his to help him aim at a target. She squeezed the trigger for him and the bolt hit the target -bullseye. A few of the troopers clapped for her. "See? Try and shoot it by yourself. It's okay if you don't get the target, it's your first try."

Edo aimed like she showed him, trying to keep the blaster pointed the way she had it. He was a bit nervous, and his grip wasn't that great since his hands were too small. He pulled the trigger and the blaster recoiled, hitting him in the face. The bolt managed to hit the target, midway between the edge and the center. He turned to smile up at Phasma, proud that he managed to hit it.

"Oh kriff that is going to leave a mark." The bruise was already forming, right under Edo's left eye. Phasma could just feel that the General was going to kill her. She took the blaster away and lifted the boy up. She turned to the stormtroopers and barked, "None of you ever saw this." 

Bringing Edo to the medbay, Phasma found that despite the technology the First Order had, the medical droids could not get rid of a very large very purple bruise on a five year old's face. They gave Edo ice for it and sent them on their way. Phasma couldn't think of any way to hide the bruise. She supposed make-up would work, but it would get wiped off easily. So she discarded that idea. Maybe if she hurried she could leave Edo with Mitaka and threaten him, so the blame would be left on the Lieutenant. Since Edo never talked he wouldn't ever reveal the secret.

Of course fate did not let that plan take course. She spotted Mitaka, who was talking to the General. The Lieutenant spotted her and said something to the General, pointing. Hux looked over, and dismissed Mitaka, walking over to them. 

"General."

"What did you do to him? Why does he have an ice pack?"

"Just a small training accident." She handed the boy over. "He's fine."

Hux pulled away the ice pack to get a look at the bruise. "That doesn't look 'fine' to me! What happened?"

"Well I was teaching him how to use a blaster and they recoil, sir, so the blaster just hit him, that's all."

"Why in hells were you teaching him how to use a blaster? You let him fire one?"

"I thought he needed to learn how to defend himself. With your coronation coming up, he's going to need some defense in case someone decides that grabbing the Emperor's son is a good idea."

"Then teach him how to use a knife or how to bite someone! He's too small to use a blaster."

"The thought failed to cross my mind, General, I apologize."

Hux held back a sigh. "Fine. Do be careful next time. I don't want him covered in training injuries."

-

Hux inspected the bruise that night. Edo was ready to go to bed, already yawning. It would take a while for the mark to fade. It was so strikingly obvious against the boy's pallid skin. Covering it up would be a hassle, Edo had so many freckles that covering the bruise would leave a blank patch that wouldn't fool anyone. 

The coronation was coming in just a week, and if the mark didn't fade by then Hux knew it would spark rumors and questions. Gossip about the highest ranking First Order officers was already quite popular amongst the galaxy, with him becoming Emperor it would just increase tenfold. The press would be trying to dig up as much information on him as they good, and Edo would be a prime target for stories and rumors. He could already imagine it. If the bruise didn't fade he knew the question 'Does the First Order Emperor abuse his son?' would pop up. Since the galaxy already viewed him as cold-hearted and merciless, it would be hard to argue that he didn't. Never mind the fact that Edo already looked pretty weak.

Edo made a small sound of distress and Hux realized he'd been pressing on the bruise while he thought. He quickly pulled his hand away. "Ah- sorry."

Hux also knew the inevitable question would come up asking who Edo's mother was. He would have to come up with a good cover story for that. He couldn't admit that Edo's other parent just happened to be the infamous Kylo Ren. Saying Edo was an altered clone would work well enough. It was the truth after all. He just had to say he wanted to continue his linage but didn't have the desire to marry and bed a woman in order to get a successor. All he had to do was leave out the part that Ren had donated some genes.

Perfect. A good cover story. Hux committed it to memory and put Edo to bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up next: probably the coronation most likely


	11. Coronations and Forgetfulness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hux becomes Emperor, Edo is having weird dreams, and Phasma basically calls Hux a DILF, and Poe needs to keep his money to himself

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey i have no suitable apology for why I haven't updated in so long but!!!! its because im a lazy forgetful person who works on too many things at once !! also mental illness hoo boy thats the main reason honestly  
> So here's the next chapter where for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to switch POVs a lot + coronations are actually really boring but!! we have Emperor Hux now.   
> See end note for link to extra stuff about this fic (including a picture of older!Edo)

**Chapter 11**

The days suddenly went by rather fast, until Hux was onboard a shuttle taking him down to the planet where he would be crowned Emperor. He had Phasma and a group of her absolute best troopers with him as guards. It would do no good if he was assassinated right before or after his coronation. Edo sat on the seat next to him, strapped in and swinging his legs. It was his first time ever leaving the _Finalizer_ and he was excited. It would also be his first time being on a real planet. His eyes had shone when he was told they were leaving.

Regretfully, the bruise under his eye hadn't vanished. It was fading, but the blotchy purple was stark against the boy's pale skin. Edo didn't even seem to notice it at all. Hopefully any cameras would be too far to pick up the mark.

"Hey B.3. you ready for the big day? Remember what to do?"

"Mhmm!"

"Just stand by me and my boys until we give you the signal."

Hux gave Phasma a suspicious look. "Signal? What did you tell him?"

"Well, General, if I may- You're already popular because you're, I quote, 'young and handsome for a General', and because you destroyed the Hosnian system. The latter kind of overpowers the former, so people don't exactly have many good feelings about you. So my boys and I decided that you need to be shown in a new light. What the stereotypical humanoid woman loves is a handsome man who's good with children. So I've instructed B.3. to look as cute as possible and to cling to you when I give him the signal."

"Phasma you really put too much thought into gossip. It's like Edo is some new super weapon you're putting me in charge of."

"People will fall for how adorable your very small son is and they will see you in a new light, as a desirable handsome single father."

Hux rolled his eyes. "This is an idiotic idea."

"But our planning, General. We've spent three days working on this. B.3. is a weapon we can use to win the hearts of the people. This is a great idea, right B.3.?"

Edo nodded. "Mhmm!"

"At least give him the signal when it won't cause a distraction, for stars' sake."

"Of course, General."

-

Edo was excited and Edo was nervous. Edo was excited because Edo had never left the ship before, had never been to a planet before. Edo was nervous because the night before Edo had his most surreal nightmare yet. Edo was not even sure if Edo should be calling them nightmares by now, but the one last night certainly was one. The dreams had started out normal, daily situations where Edo would be reprimanded by adults or left alone in dark or empty room. The adults would dish insult after insult at Edo, in some gibberish that Edo couldn't understand but knew was negative. The rooms would be completely sealed, with no doors, and Edo wouldn't be able to get out no matter how much Edo pounded on the walls.

Some would have his father, staring down at him with that disappointed look and Edo wouldn't know what to do, and the dream would abruptly end as the man went to speak.

The latest ones had become morphed, with reoccurring endless hallways and his mother, who was growing increasingly surreal with every dream. Edo would try to chase after him in every dream, but in this latest one Edo had been frozen in place when his mother appeared in the dream -the nightmare.

An empty hallway, with the walls each holding up a long line of faces. The faces were circular and resembled stormtrooper masks, with black visors in the shape of a smiling face. Edo had walked down the hall and lights lit up underneath the masks, revealing glowing red eyes and glowing red teeth that were most definitely not human. Edo had continued walking until Edo reached the end of the hallway, a small room with a few doors that reminded Edo of doors to conference rooms on the ship. Edo had frozen in place then, seeing his mother standing in the center of that room, back turned to Edo. Fear had filled the dream, Edo was choking on it. Not a magic strike of fear like before the medbay trip, but his own. 

When the man turned he had the face of what was underneath the masks in the hallway, the glowing red eyes and sharp teeth. A monster's visage instead of a face that Edo was slowly struggling to recall. Edo could not move as his mother -the monster, approached him, with heavy and unbalanced steps. Edo could only stare up as the monster came to stand in front of him, looming over him, much taller than Edo recalled the man being. Edo had woken up as the room started to swirl and the monster's mouth opened wider and wider, his vision filling with teeth and red and why couldn't Edo remember what his mother looked like why was Edo drawing a blank why couldn't Edo picture someone so important why didn't Edo _remember_ -

-

One of the troopers rubbed Edo's head, ruffling his hair, "We're about to start landing, lil' fella." 

Hux was distressed, instantly trying to fix the boy's hair that he had brushed perfectly into place earlier. "Ugh- his _hair_ \- it was perfect and now you've-"

The troopers laughed, including Phasma. The one responsible spoke, "Sorry General," before laughing as well. The ship began its descent while Hux fussed over his son's hair. He managed to get it back into place just as the ship settled on the ground. Edo was dazed, like he always was after getting his hair fixed up. He'd fallen asleep earlier while getting his hair brushed. Hux always found that amusing, that Edo dozed off getting his head rubbed.

"We're here, sir. The coronation is ready as soon as you are." Phasma and the troopers stood. Hux nodded and unfastened himself and Edo. He smoothed his uniform and checked to make sure Edo was ready. He took the boy's hand and looked to Phasma.

"Ready."

-

Poe came rushing into the conference room, "General Organa, you need to see this!" He had a holoprojecter in his hand. Leia looked up from the report she was looking over. Rey and Kylo stood behind her, and a group of miscellaneous other Resistance officers were around. Poe didn't have time to wonder what kind of meeting he interrupted. Plans for something or new intelligence about the First Order, perhaps.

"What is it, Dameron?"

He held out the holoprojector and turned it on, revealing a large news broadcast. "The First Order is up to something."

The broadcast showed a picture of General Hux, the First Order symbol above him. Underneath it it read, 'General Hux to be crowned Emperor of First Order after resignation of former Supreme Leader Snoke. The coronation will take place in one week's time and will be broadcast for the entire galaxy to see. If you are able please attend the broadcast at this location-' it listed the location, coordinates and exact time.

"Snoke resigned?" Kylo spoke when he got to that part. "Why would he do that? That's not part of his plan at all."

"Perhaps he has a new plan. Crowning an emperor like Hux will rally support for the First Order. He is a well known and powerful symbol of the Order. This is to gain allies and funds." Leia commented, looking at the location. "That planet is nearby, hardly two systems away. He must be aiming to try and tempt us. If we were to pull anything at this coronation, we would look like villains."

"Some boyfriend you have, cousin." Rey elbowed Kylo, smirking.

"Shut up." Kylo looked over at Leia. "Will we be attending the coronation?"

"No. We will just watch the broadcast." She decided. "But I will send some of our lower ranking men to check it out, no one recognizable."

-

The day of the coronation arrived faster than Kylo thought it would. It was like he was in a daze, trying to figure out what Snoke's new plan would be, and what Hux might do as Emperor -he had always wanted to be one he'd told Kylo as he recovered from his fight on Starkiller base right after they had kissed for the first time as a real couple. Luke had scolded him for not focusing during meditation so he had worked in the hanger for the past two days.

A small group of minor officers went to attend the ceremony in person, and everyone else gathered to watch the coronation over its live broadcast wherever they could. Kylo, Leia, Rey, Finn, and Poe opted to watch it at Leia's home. Luke didn't feel like watching it so he did not show up, and Chewbacca went with him wherever he had gone. It didn't interest them much.

Rey nudged her cousin, smirking, "Ready to watch your evil space dictator boyfriend become a _real_ space dictator?"

"He's not a dictator."

"Are you defending him?"

"No. But Snoke is still all behind this, remember? So Hux isn't a real dictator, just the figurehead." Kylo suspected that wasn't entirely true, Hux would have a lot of power, he would just still be under orders from Snoke. Which lead to the thought of the fact that Snoke was probably giving very few very cryptic orders. Hux was going to gain a lot of power. He _was_ defending him, Kylo realized.

Poe leaned back against the couch from his seat on the floor, bumping against the cousins' legs. "Do you think your kid is gonna be at the ceremony? I bet he'll be standing off to the side surrounded by some troopers."

"How much are you betting?" Kylo smirked. "Because I bet he'll be holding Hux's hand. There's no way Hux will let Edo out of his sight while planet-side."

"Hmm... six credits. Finn, join me on this."

"Um, no thank you, betting is dumb." Finn shook his head. He'd learned the hard way about betting when he was in Phasma's division, he wasn't eager to relive it.

Rey piped up, "I'm siding with Ren, so get twelve credits ready, Dameron!"

"You're on, Skywalker. I'll be the one getting twelve credits."

The broadcast turned on, catching all their attention. Poe sighed when the camera revealed that Kylo had been absolutely right. He dug in his pocket for twelve credits and tossed it back to the cousins. "I was wrong Rey."

"Damn right, Dameron."

-

The crowd that had shown up to watch his coronation impressed Hux. There were a lot of stormtroopers, of course, but people who had come of their own accord were filling the stadium to its limits. Everyone was packed in, eager to see the crowning of the new emperor. From what he could see all of the spectators appeared to be excited for his crowning, so all of them must have been from a planet under the First Order, or were First Order sympathizers.

Cameras had been trained on him the second he came out of the shuttle, so Hux put on a calm face with a small smile. He had to look appealing, which if he was honestly going to listen to what Phasma said, wouldn't be all that hard. 

Walking to the stage let Hux really get a good look at the crowd. Some people were glaring at him, he noticed, probably Republic or Resistance members, so his previous thought had been mildly incorrect. He didn't really fear that he would be targeted, the troopers searched everyone who came inside, and the doors scanned each person for weapons. Any and all weapons were confiscated. The Resistance would also get the message that they would be painted as the bad guys if they tried anything, so they were just here to observe, if any.

Edo was looking around in awe. Being planet-side clearly fascinated him. Hux walked slower than usual to make sure the boy didn't have to struggle to keep up. The bruise unfortunately seemed to stick out more in the bright light of the stadium, but at least the cameras were far away for now, and then they would be focused on him.

-

Coronations were boring, Edo decided as Edo watched some council give a speech. Seeing all sorts of people, the sky, _that_ was exciting. His father had sent him off to the side with Phasma and a line of troopers. Edo didn't really know why there were so many people here, what was so important on stage. It was all adult talk, like the meetings his father attended all the time. They were boring.

_**Yes, I quite find this boring too.** _

Edo's friend whispered in his head, the familiar magic being a welcome distraction. His friend must have been watching, of course, there were cameras everywhere after all. Phasma had told him that people across the galaxy would be watching, and that was why Edo had to look as cute as possible. She'd poked his nose, and told him it wouldn't be hard. His friend had told him to behave as well, as his father brushed his hair earlier. To be perfectly obedient to his father, to Phasma, to his friend.

Phasma gave Edo the signal, a slight twitch of her fingers only Edo would be able to catch, that the cameras wouldn't be able to pick up.

-

Hux managed to not startle as all of the sudden his son latched onto his leg right before he could be crowned Emperor. He mentally cursed Phasma for deciding that his request of not giving the boy the signal was invalid and to be ignored completely. He looked down to see Edo was staring up at him with wide puppy eyes. He ignored the man in front of him to reach down and pick the boy up. Settling Edo on his hip, he brushed a loose strand of hair back into place before turning back to the coronation. Edo rested his head on his father's chest.

-

Rey punched her cousin's shoulder as his son interrupted the whole coronation by running up to the General's leg. "Look at him go!"

"Ren, your kid is so kriffing tiny." Poe snorted. "You and General Ginger are so tall, how did you produce something so short?"

"Shut up, Poe." Kylo couldn't help a grin. It was exciting to see his son again, even if the boy looked exactly the same as when he left. The only difference he could see was that maybe the boy was paler, but that might have just been the lighting.

Poe squinted at the holoscreen when it zoomed in more on Hux and Edo. "Your kid is bruised up." He pointed at it as if it wasn't obvious. "On his face."

"What do you think happened?" Rey looked up at Kylo, who just shrugged.

"Five credits Hux hit him." Poe decided. Kylo reached over and drove his fist down onto Poe's head. "OW!" He swiveled around. "What was that before?"

Kylo scowled. "Hux would never hurt Edo."

"How do you know?" Poe scooted forward so he would be out of reach. "General Ginger seems like the type to use violence as discipline. That's how it is in those awful academies, right? They tell the kids to kill each other and beat their weaknesses out of them. Why wouldn't he do the same?"

"He _wouldn't._ Edo probably just fell, he was always clumsy."

"Ah, the old 'I walked into a door' excuse. Gotcha."

"Shut your mouth, Dameron."

"OKAY! Look Hux is being crowned!" Rey nearly shouted, not wanting things to get any worse. She could see and sense how mad her cousin was getting. She didn't want him to force choke Poe or something. Her distraction worked, Kylo immediately focusing on the screen again. 

They'd missed whatever was said, but Hux was lowering his head to have a thin shining silver circlet slide into place. Once secure, Hux straightened up and turned to face the crowd, smile on his face. The light hit him perfectly to make the circlet gleam, and Kylo got a sense that it wasn't really silver.

Seeing Hux standing on the stage, a newly crowned Emperor like the man had been dreaming off for years, Kylo felt like he was falling in love with the redhead all over again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tfw ur bf becomes a True evil space dictator and ur in love w him again, dang I am Kylo in that moment for real  
> -  
> Okay so on my tumblr i have a tag for when i talk about this fic so!!! If u wanna see me talking about things, spoilers for what happens to Edo and what he grows up to be, plus a picture of what older Edo looks like, which u can find here-  
> http://bubbaknowlton.tumblr.com/tagged/crowd-ramblings   
> Remember to check out Alone in the Crowd: Extras for more stories that fit in w this universe but not the timeline !! They're supposed to be all goofy but I have a semi-depressing one to post soon  
> plus I'll be adding chapter titles soon??? so yeah


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